Woo boy, I often struggle to find a couple more songs to put on mixes to make it at least an hour, and this time I had to remove a few songs because it was getting too long. We're knee deep in amazing new releases and I've been really in the mood for some great old goodies lately, so this is a good mix, trust me. Listen here or stream below.

Oh boy, Spring means SO many excellent new albums. New albums from Dirty Projectors, Aimee Mann, Valerie June, Real Estate, Kendrick Lamar, Future Islands, and Laura Marling are at the top of my recent rotation. I want to underline underline underline the new Laura Marling album, Semper Femina: it's perfect. Singles from the new Mac Demarco album (coming in a couple weeks) are so good I had to cap each end of this mix with it. Eagerly awaiting new Feist and Gorillaz, as well. Woo! Ok, have a listen to mix no. 3 here on Spotify or stream below.

I had the great pleasure of teaching a FREE online class for Brit + Co that just went live today! Mobile Product Photography for Your Online Store. The class is for absolute beginners who have products they're interested in sharing with the world and want to take simple, easy photos of them and sell them online. We teamed up with Weebly, and the second half of the class focuses on how you can start your own online store using the awesome photos you take in the class, and I walk through setting up my own Weebly store where you can see photos from the class.

Shoot three different types of product photos and enhance them with The Color Story app.

Quickly set up and upload your product photos into your first Weebly shop.

The class is totally free, take a peek at the trailer over on Brit + Co to see if it can help you and see how huge of a dork I am! (desk kick back at the end was improvised after a long day of shooting, ha) I hope it inspires some would-be entrepreneurs to kick start their own line.

Thank you Brit + Co for SUCH a fun shoot and a little solo trip to SF that was so great, and thank you Weebly for being such a rad partner.

I was feeling the need to make something just to make something yesterday, and decided to turn them into some desktop and mobile wallpapers! I got a new computer and needed something to spruce my desktop up, and hilariously I haven't changed the wallpaper on my phone since my very first iPhone over 6 years ago, oof! Two colorways as I like options and also am a serious Libra and can't make choices. *shrug* Download 'em below.

Meg of Make Nice interviewed me late last fall and it's up now! I talk about creative pressure, Fiona Apple, and karaoke (I can't help myself). Thanks for having me, guys! This part seems to be resonating with a lot of people who have read the interview:

Don’t be too hard on yourself, but don’t limit yourself either by what you think you can’t do.

Sliding in during the very last couple days of April, the April mix I've been slowly prodding away at for too long. This is more all over the place than usual, not quite as much new music as I normally go for, I've been getting into things I missed back when they came out or, just plain miss from back when. I also unintentionally included a love of cover songs on this. You know I love a cover.

Hi. I know, it's been three months. I just needed space and realize that I kind of wish I'd never started this blog and the promises I made to it, ha. But oh well! I leave you this year with my yearly round up of the best songs of the year. Two things I couldn't put on this list: anything from Adele's 25 (was not going to torture you with "Hello" as you hear it enough in the grocery store but the album is really great if you're a pop fan), and this really fantastic EP Roman GianArthur made that mashes up Radiohead and D'Angelo called OK Lady. You can stream that on Soundcloud here.

I heard my last mix was a little too chill, so I tried to make this guy a little more upbeat, particularly if you're in need of something good for the three-day weekend if you're here in the states. I've been moving to not just solely focus on new music on my mixes, but also what just sounds good at the time, or older things I discover as well. Ok, listen here on Spotify!

1. Is This What You Wanted Leonard Cohen2. Dynamite The Roots3. Slumlord Neon Indian4. The Lottery The Stepkids5. Anxious In Venice Superhumanoids6. Cold Slope Wilco7. Another One Mac Demarco8. Born In The Echoes The Chemical Brothers ft. Cate Le Bon9. Summertime Vince Staples10. Treat Me Like Fire Lion Babe11. There Can Be Only One Cass McCombs12. Snow In Newark Ryan Hemsworth, Dawn Golden13. Unstoppable Lianne La Havas14. Too High Stevie Wonder15. No Sass Photay

At the end of the month Will, June, and I are driving up to Seattle to visit my family. The idea of driving there was born out of a few things: 1. Will hates flying and avoids it at all costs, 2. Boarding June is ridiculously expensive due to her being aggressive towards some other dogs and has to go to a special for Dogs That Are Asshats and 3. Not too long ago we traded up our pick up truck for a Honda Element, the most perfect camping/road trip vehicle to ever grace the land. Perfect storm excuse for a fun road trip. We drove across the country when we moved to LA from NYC, but I've never done the West Coast trip via car; we did the Amtrak trip and it was magical.

Now, in an ideal world we'd have like, two weeks so we could go a more fun route, but I want a few quality days in town visiting family (and it's already super tight, no time for friend hanging) so we have to gun it a bit and have a couple very long stretches of driving. But the first leg will be more fun than the way back. Will's uncle has a place in Lake Tahoe, so we're going to go up the 395 and stay there - a drive we did a couple years ago and it was amazing. At the time we had to hustle there and didn't make any stops, but this time we're leaving the night before to knock out a couple hours of the drive so we have time the next day for at least one detour - possible a hike at Mono Lake, or a hot spring visit. After Tahoe we drive to somewhere in or around Eugene, then the next day a shorter day driving to my dad's outside Seattle. The way back we'll just head down 1-5 all the way home, possibly stopping in Ashland the first night and Fresno the second.

While we'll mostly be driving without a ton of time big detour stops, the one thing I'm figuring out is a few fun stops to shake our legs out and the potential to avoid fast food for every meal - which was the worst part about our cross country trip. I think California and Oregon have more potential for this to be avoided than the middle of the country. So, has anyone else done this trip before and have any recommendations? Any tips welcome! I'm finding using Hipcamp and Roadtrippers helpful.

Listening to all the Ane Brun songs I can get my paws on this morning. Somehow I've never heard of this Norwegian goddess before. The video for "Directions" is giving me major Robyn vibes ala "Call Your Girlfriend". Spotify doesn't have all her albums but I love the Sketches album, which appears to be super stripped down folk versions of her songs. Stripped down version of the first video below. Even more haunting.